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Ezra Cornell’s Founding Mission

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I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.

Ezra Cornell / University Founder, 1865

  

Ruth Bader Ginsburg On Free Speech

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The right to speak my mind out, that's America ... The right to think, speak and write as we believe without fear that Big Brother will retaliate against us because we don't tow the party line.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg / Cornell '54 / Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States

     

Statements On Cornell Campus Conditions

 

Cornell’s motto says it is an institution where ‘any person can find instruction in any study’. Instead, it is becoming a place where everyone is pressured to subscribe to the same ideas, no matter their course of study.

American Council of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA)

 

Cornell's monoculture stifles free expression and attacks academic freedom. How can the university be intellectually diverse when surveys show 99% of faculty & staff have the same political loyalties, while 88% of students censor themselves? This atmosphere suppresses free thought and free speech. The Cornell administration must act now to create a more welcoming environment for diversity of thought.

Karen Tallentire / Cornell Alumnus

 

Many Cornellians are scared to challenge the progressive status quo and speak in opposition to those pushing ideological conformity.

Laura Jocelyn / Cornell Student

 

Cornell ranks 188th out of 203 US universities in its Administration’s support for free speech.

FIRE University Free Speech Survey  - 2022

 

I knew we had a problem with freedom of speech at Cornell, especially after the Ann Coulter event. ( The above ranking of 188 out of 203) figures definitely confirmed this issue for me.

Max Whalen / Cornell Student

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Cornell leadership recently announced a “Year of Free Speech” for 2023-24 academic year.  This appears to be little more than a PR campaign aimed at relieving the mounting pressure for university reforms – not a serious effort to address the problems on campus. While claiming devotion to free speech and academic freedom, Cornell leadership has stated that it has no intention of changing the policies which are suppressing these freedoms. This position is not acceptable.

Steve Mirabito / Cornell Alumnus

 

Professors, staff members and students are strongly discouraged from entertaining certain topics even privately, much less discussing them publicly on campus

Professor Wendy Williams / Cornell University

 

These days, Cornell's Day Hall sems to be confused about its job -- which is to properly and prudently oversee a great research university. Instead, Day Hall seems inclined to run a Political Action Committee. The Trustee Board needs to adopt the CFSA Policy Recommendations to start the process of getting Day Hall back on track.

Anthony Delgreco / Cornell Alumnus

  

(The) Cornell University President…. recently announced that the theme of the 2023-24 academic year will focus on free expression, and set up a Steering Committee for Free Expression to that end.  (However) Cornell (has) stack(ed) the new free speech committee with DEI scholars.

The College Fix / May 2023 Article

 

It is really pernicious...For students, the path of least resistance is to keep your mouth shut. This very much undermines the learning environment (at Cornell).

Matthew Samilow / Cornell Student

 

The alarming reality is that Cornell is rejecting highly qualified faculty applicants in the pure sciences for the sole reason that their political views do not conform to the University’s DEI viewpoint preferences. Such policies are sure to be challenged in court soon. Cornell should save itself great embarrassment and potential financial liability by ceasing such discriminatory practices immediately.

Carl F. Neuss / Cornell Alumnus

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Students ... cannot say things in their classes. This is what is so remarkably depressing about Cornell...You are in an environment that discourages dissent.

Professor Richard F. Bensel / Cornell University

 

In the competition among ideas, Cornell University should serve as an open forum for vigorous debate and discovery -- and not become a cheerleader for, or proponent of, one political ideology or another. Unfortunately, the University has now adopted partisan political action as a key purpose. With this loss of viewpoint balance and neutrality, Cornell is currently failing in its fundamental educational mission.

Kenneth P. Wolf / Cornell Alumnus

 

(With the) intolerance of meaningful debate...the risks and penalties are tangible...from shaming and ostracizing, to fear of loss of tenure and jobs for professors…

               Professor Stephen Ceci / Cornell University

 

Private talks with faculty and students are shocking. An Orwellian atmosphere exists at Cornell. The campus is riddled with anxiety about saying the wrong thing or holding the wrong view. It is heartbreaking to see.

Alvaro Diaz Bedregal / Cornell Alumnus

 

Today, many Cornell faculty and students live in fear. If they hold the wrong view, university leadership gives no support and mob justice may be unleashed against them.

Professor Richard A. Baer / Cornell University

 

The current monoculture on campus has stifled “seeking the truth” for both faculty and students alike, creating the greatest threat in the University’s 158 year history to Ezra Cornell’s goal of founding an institution where ‘any person can find instruction in any study’.

Brian Forzani / Cornell Alumnus

 

We write as a group of liberals frustrated with the current campus hostility towards free speech and open dialogue.

Ben Feldman / Cornell Student

 

Cornell University removes bust of Abraham Lincoln, citing a ‘Complaint’…. (the display)  was taken down following “a complaint.” It’s not the first time Lincoln’s name has been scrubbed from an institution in the fervor of post-2020 iconoclasm.

The National Review / June 2022

 

The Cornell clock tower, arts quad and hockey uniforms look the same. But an intolerant ideological grip has transformed campus into something unrecognizable. With a few notable exceptions, dissenting faculty, staff and students have been sidelined or silenced.

Steve Baginski / Cornell Alumnus

 

The DEI bureaucracy…creates division, entitlement, and intimidation which prohibits free speech. People are so afraid of being called a racist … that they won’t say anything. My students are afraid to express themselves.”

Professor Randy Wayne / Cornell University

 

The lack of ideological debate on this campus is extremely harmful to students.

Jessica Reif / Cornell Student

 

Under strong pressure to conform to ideological norms, 88% of Cornell students report self-censorship in class and on campus.

Foundation For Individual Rights In Education (FIRE)

 

Differences should be what the university is most about – not just differences in how people look, but in how people think.

Julius Kairey / Cornell Student

 

Some are pessimistic about bringing needed change to Cornell. I am more positive -- because the current learning environment is so utterly indefensible. And, Cornell leadership knows this.

Vivian Desanto / Cornell Alumnus

 

Students do not feel comfortable expressing their opinion ... due to fears of social ostracism and especially from fear of punishment from the administration.

Anonymous Graduate Student’s Letter To The Dean / Cornell University

 

99.5% of Cornell Faculty, Academics’ Donations Given to Left-Leaning Groups. 

The Cornell Daily Sun

 

Faculty donations go almost entirely to (a single political party). This reflects the extreme homogeneity of political views on campus.

Professor Richard F. Bensel / Cornell University

 

Cornell leadership fails to protect free speech. Denouncing a professor while taking no action and citing job protection tells faculty and students lacking such protection that they are at risk. This is how ideological conformity is imposed on campus.

Professor William A. Jacobson / Cornell University

 

Cornell's commitment (to free speech) feels more perfunctory than real... The faculty know that the university doesn't really back you up.

Matthew Samilow / Cornell Student

 

Cornell leadership must recognize that denial and/or neglect of the open inquiry and academic freedom problems currently confronting the University will not work. The problems are real and they are serious. With an embedded monoculture on campus, the independent judgements of the Board of Trustees are now crucial. The Board must act to protect Cornell and its founding principles.

David Ackerman /  Cornell Alumnus

 

For a decade, there has been a very strong positive correlation between the expansion of Cornell’s collaborative (international) programs and the increasingly repressive environment of the host institutions with which we are involved . . . It seems almost lock step that if oppression goes up, so does Cornell’s involvement abroad.

Professor Richard F. Bensel / Cornell University / FIRE Article on Cornell Global Hubs

 

A repressive campus culture …. does not eliminate those with dissenting views.
The goal is to win hearts and minds—not to cancel them.

Sara Stober / Cornell Student

                                                                                                               

Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln bust removed from Cornell library (by Administration) …Exhibits, statues and names honoring historical American figures have come under increasing scrutiny, most notably during the protests and riots in the summer of 2020. Lincoln was among the figures targeted.

New York Post / June 2022

 

(T)he University is looking for ways to train students faculty and staff in the reigning campus orthodoxy. …Cornell is working to ensure that its students won’t hear a variety of viewpoints by mandating that faculty applicants pass an ideological litmus test to get a job.

American Council of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA)

 

The most untrained eye can observe that .. the university continues to endorse an abhorrent lack of (viewpoint) diversity.

Raj Kannappan / Cornell Alumnus / VP, Young Americas Foundation

 

Faculty viewpoint conformity contributes to a campus culture hostile to free expression. Viewpoint diversity should be embedded in the hiring process just as the university embeds other forms of diversity.  

Professor William A. Jacobson / Cornell University

 

Faculty preach a very uniform way of thinking which is very clearly reflected in our classes and assignments.

Jessica Reif / Cornell Student

 

I enjoyed my time at Cornell tremendously, but I don’t think I’d enjoy it if I were there today. I would hate the pressure to conform to a set ideology.

Loretta Breuning / Cornell Alumnus

 

Cornell's monoculture distorts research. The study of American poverty is directly impeded. Only certain causes and solutions are "acceptable" avenues of study -- others are not. Free academic inquiry is shut down.

Anonymous Professor / Cornell University

 

DEI programs, with their divisive identitarian concepts, compelled speech, suppressed dissent, and the soft bigotry of low expectations, have no place at Cornell -- whose defining and legitimizing purpose as a place of learning and human fulfillment can only be realized through a steadfast commitment to freedom of speech, open inquiry, civil discourse, and genuine intellectual diversity.

J. Kenneth Davis / Cornell Alumnus 

 

Cornell is captive to a religious fervor which is intolerant of non-believers. The religion of identity politics and grievance culture now pervades Cornell and seems determined to stamp out viewpoint diversity and free academic inquiry.

Professor Richard A. Baer / Cornell University

 

There are a million examples of (Cornell University) actions that contribute to the (repressive) culture...The fear on campus is an effective deterrent (to free speech).

Matthew Samilow / Cornell Student

 

The First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom and  free speech go hand-in-hand. It is very distressing to see attacks on traditional religious faith at Cornell. In particular, instances of antisemitism have grown at the University. My concern is that current Cornell policies impair, rather than uphold, religious freedom.
This is not the Cornell I once knew.

David Ackerman / Cornell Alumnus

 

Cornell … will not benefit if it becomes known as a place that is hostile to academic freedom.         

Dr. Peter Wood / President, National Association of Scholars

 

We are actively discouraged … from engaging in intellectual discussion in favor of regurgitating talking points that professors give us.

Jessica Reif / Cornell Student

 

There is no way to explain away the transparent contradictions between the university’s diversity policy and its supposed commitment to a competition of ideas.

Raj Kannappan / Cornell Alumnus / VP, Young Americas Foundation

 

The fact that Cornell leadership felt the need to recently declare 2023-24 “The Year of Free Speech”

on campus speaks volumes. CFSA now reaches over 50,000 Cornellians. As alumni become more informed on how much Cornell has drifted from its founding mission, demands for a substantial shift in

 University policy (not just speeches and PR) will grow. Cornell must now make this shift.

Alvaro Diaz Bedregal  / Cornell Alumnus

 

I’ve been watching the campus climate for 50 years now. This is the worst it’s been (with respect to the free speech environment).

Robert Platt / Cornell Alumnus 

 

(Cornell’s) leaders talk about preserving the values of free speech and open inquiry… But do they have the spine to punish students when they violate those standards? (The University President’s) recent comments … do not inspire confidence. (The) President… should be taking the lead; instead, she’s deflecting responsibility.

Real Clear Education / November 2022

 

Time might be running out on Cornell’s reputation for excellence given the school’s recent retreat from the values of open inquiry and free expression….Students, faculty, and alumni say the school is suffering from a monoculture in which dissenting voices are rare and unwelcome.

American Council of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA)

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INPUT  FROM  LEADING FREE  SPEECH  ORGANIZATIONS

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The CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations are a timely and important defense of academic freedom, free expression, and viewpoint diversity at one of our nation's great colleges and leading research universities. We urge Cornell's leadership to act on these recommendations, and thus honor Cornell's historic commitment to the pursuit of truth and the dissemination of knowledge.

John Tomasi / President, Heterodox Academy  (HxA)

 

Policy reform at  universities across the US  is sorely needed to strengthen academic freedom, free speech, and viewpoint diversity on campuses. The CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations to Cornell University are a strong and incisive prescription for such reform. AFSA plans to use these recommendations to Cornell as a strong basis for a set of “model policies” for American universities.

Constance T. Buehler / Board Member & New Member Chair, Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA)

 

Free expression is central to the search for truth. Without it, higher education is a hollow shell, a farce. ACTA commends the Cornell Free Speech Alliance for its untiring efforts to raise awareness and hold Cornell accountable to its core values, above all free and open inquiry and expression. Cornell administrators must engage with concerned alumni, seeing them not as inconvenient critics, but as guardians of values and partners in helping Cornell achieve its highest aspirations.

Michael Poliakoff / President, American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA)

 

Speech First applauds Cornell Free Speech Alliance for developing policy recommendations that  not only protect students' First Amendment rights, but also remove policies that specifically chill student speech. A majority of universities implement mechanisms to identify, track, and shut down dissenting voices. We commend the CFSA policy recommendations that defend and protect free speech on campus. Our students deserve the right to speak and think freely.

Cherise Trump / President, Speech First

 

The CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations demonstrate a strong commitment to free speech and academic freedom. These recommendations forge a path forward for Cornell that embraces ideological diversity and stronger protections for dissenting viewpoints. The Institute for Free Speech fully supports the aims of these recommendations and hopes that the Cornell Administration will adopt these reforms.

Bradley A. Smith / Chairman and Founder, Institute for Free Speech (IFS)

 

The CSFA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations show 'what right looks like' for universities desiring an open and intellectually diverse campus. We urge the Cornell Administration and Trustees to carefully review and act on these recommendations before continued stifling of dissenting views causes lasting damage to Cornell’s reputation for innovation and excellence.

Charles E. Davis / Chairman & President, Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA)

 

Cornell has committed itself to promoting the theme of free expression during the 2023-2024 school year. The survey data, speech codes, and recent campus controversies clearly show that the institution has a long way to go before they firmly establish a culture of free speech. I am thrilled to see alumni working to ensure that Cornell makes good on its commitments to students and faculty.

Connor Murnane / Director of Engagement and Mobilization, FIRE

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The policy reforms recommended to Cornell by CFSA are greatly needed. However, as we all know,

“personnel is policy”. Many university staff members and even whole departments (e.g. DEI departments) directly impair free speech and academic freedom on campus. Cornell likely must make significant personnel changes at all levels if it is serious about making the policy shifts that are required.

Tom Rideout / Vice Chairman & Board Member, Alumni Free Speech Alliance (AFSA)

 

Private universities like Cornell offer too few avenues for real accountability. Left unchecked, the university can easily cave to the worst trends in higher education, abandoning academic freedom and stifling the pursuit of truth. With its policy recommendations, CSFA provides a vital roadmap for course correction. Cornell should take note.

John Sailer / Senior Fellow & Director of University Policy, National Association of Scholars (NAS)

 

The principles of the CFSA policy recommendations provide a solid foundation for Cornell and other non-religious schools to foster and respect religious freedom on campus. Religious diversity contributes to viewpoint diversity on campus and helps to enrich the collegiate environment.

Lori Windham / Member of the Bar of the US Supreme Court, Attorney For First Amendment & Religious Freedom Law

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The importance of open inquiry and free expression on American campuses cannot be overstated. The protection of free speech within institutions of higher education like Cornell is what makes it possible for this country to turn out exemplary leaders year after year. That is why we are so enthusiastic about the CFSA’s recommendations to Cornell. FAIR applauds these efforts to uphold our nation's foundational principles.

Leigh Ann O’Neill / Managing Director of Legal Advocacy, Foundation Against Racism & Intolerance (FAIR)

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Academic freedom and free speech at Cornell are under siege. The University of Virginia faces the same problems. Cornell’s adoption of the CFSA policy recommendations will help release students and faculty from the oppressive ideological orthodoxy now dominating campus life. We are witnessing an educational crisis which our universities must address now.

Thomas Neale / President / The Jefferson Council,  University of Virginia

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The CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations are a terrific endeavor. CFSA launches valuable policy proposals right out of the gate.

I hope not just Cornell, but universities across the country will take note.

Keith E. Whittington/ Founding Chair, Academic Freedom Alliance (AFA)

 

Cornell students, parents, faculty, alumni, and donors see the University’s progressive drift away from encouraging individual achievement, open inquiry, and freedom of thought and expression. By adopting the CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations, Cornell leadership can prevent continued reputational damage to one of America’s finest institutions. Hopefully, this path will be chosen.

Linda Sweeney / President, Alumni and Donors Unite

 

It is important for Cornell to adopt the CFSA Policy Recommendations. But policies are just words. People are needed to implement these policies. Regrettably, many university administrators now have their careers and track records linked to programs which directly oppose free speech and academic freedom on campus. Therefore, to get these policies implemented at Cornell, the right people must be hired to do the job.

John O’Donnell / Member,  Board of Directors, Harvard Alumni For Free Speech (HAFFS)

 

With its Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations to Cornell University, CSFA has provided a roadmap that all universities can follow to protect free expression, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity on campus.

Jenna Robinson / President, The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

 

At Cornell and UNC-Chapel Hill, many students and faculty cannot speak or teach the truth, much less openly seek it. Orwellian DEI staff and infrastructure infect our universities with unjust, identity-based ideology and cancel culture. Thus, our State  has made compelled speech and most DEI training illegal. We urge Cornell to adopt the CFSA policy recommendations and help return Open Inquiry to the Ivies.

Douglas Monroe / Chair, UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance

 

The Cadet Foundation completely supports CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations as a vital standard for free speech and academic freedom. The CFSA recommendations represent a critical, and essential, move from mere statements to actionable university policy reforms. The Cadet Foundation sees these as a model for others to emulate and calls on Cornell to adopt and implement them immediately.

Robert C. Morris, Jr. / President and Founder, The Cadet Foundation / Alumni of Virginia Military Institute

 

Support for freedom of expression and academic freedom are foundational principles for our universities, which lead the continuing drive to advance knowledge. These principles are especially important at leading institutions like Cornell. We urge Cornell to strengthen its support for these principles by adopting the CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations.

Wayne Stargardt  /  President, MIT Free Speech Alliance (MITFSA)

 

Too many elite universities are afflicted with limitations on free expression and an atmosphere of ideological conformity.  The CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations chart a course for Cornell and other universities to take action to restore free expression and viewpoint diversity on campus.

John Bruce / Board Member,  UNC Alumni Free Speech Alliance (UNCAFSA)

 

Alumni can do wonderful things for their Alma Maters….to pull them back to the values that… have  made (their universities) what they are today. It is a fundamental miscarriage of an institution’s vision to think of its alumni as a group of walking check books. They are the guardians of values.

Michael Poliakoff / President, American Council of Trustees & Alumni (ACTA)

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